In situ chemical patterning

Abstract

Provided herein are methods and devices for performing in situ patterned chemistry for synthesizing and preparing peptide arrays. The invention provides a reproducible and scalable platform that can be potentially used to monitor the health of a plurality of individuals.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An in situ synthesized pseudo random peptide library for use in an immunosignature assay, wherein synthesis of the pseudo random peptide library uses a minimum number of patterned steps to construct the pseudo random peptide library on a substrate, wherein the minimum number of patterned steps (M) is less than the product of the number of different monomer units (R) and the length of the peptide (N) according to
   M<R×N,
 
 comprising: 
 a) determining the minimum number of patterned steps (M), wherein the minimum number of patterned steps (M) is at least 33% of the number of patterned steps needed to construct an uncorrelated set of sequences in the pseudo random peptide library, wherein the peptide library is disease agnostic; 
 b) assigning an activated or inactivated designation to each feature of a patterned step; 
 c) assigning a monomer to each feature that is designated as activated; and 
 d) coupling the monomers at each feature on the substrate that is designated as activated; wherein the monomers are sequentially coupled for the minimum number of patterned steps of (a), thereby providing a pseudo-random array for use in the immunosignature assay. 
 
     
     
       2. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein said synthesis is photolithography-based. 
     
     
       3. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 2 , wherein the photolithography-based synthesis comprises a photomask pattern step. 
     
     
       4. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 3 , wherein the photomasking step photomasks a feature of about 0.5 micron to about 200 microns in diameter and a center-to-center distance of about 1 micron to about 300 microns on center. 
     
     
       5. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 3 , wherein the number of photomasks needed to construct the peptide library is about 33% to about 95% of the number of photomasks needed to construct a peptide library with an uncorrelated set of sequences. 
     
     
       6. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 3 , wherein the number of photomasks needed to construct the peptide library is about 51% to about 75% of the number of photomasks needed to construct a peptide library with an uncorrelated set of sequences. 
     
     
       7. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 3 , wherein the number of photomasks needed to construct the peptide library is about 51% to about 55% of the number of photomasks needed to construct a peptide library with an uncorrelated set of sequences. 
     
     
       8. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 3 , wherein each feature on each photomask is randomly assigned an activated or inactivated designation. 
     
     
       9. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the library comprises at least 10,000 features on the substrate. 
     
     
       10. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the library comprises at least 100,000 features on the substrate. 
     
     
       11. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the library comprises at least 330,000 features on the substrate. 
     
     
       12. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the library comprises at least 1,000,000 features on the substrate. 
     
     
       13. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of arrays, wafers, slides, and beads. 
     
     
       14. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the peptides are about 5 amino acids to about 25 amino acids in length. 
     
     
       15. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 14 , wherein the peptide lengths are not uniform between features. 
     
     
       16. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein amino acids C, I, T, and M, and optionally Q and E, are not included as amino acids available during peptide synthesis. 
     
     
       17. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the activated designation is clear. 
     
     
       18. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the inactivated designation is opaque. 
     
     
       19. The pseudo random peptide library of  claim 1 , wherein the coupling of the monomers at each feature forms a linear or a branched structure.